Sale puts an end to Lake Park dream

By ANNE GIBSON Property editor

Four years of planning and a grand scheme for a $500 million commercial and residential development ended in defeat this week when Fletcher Building and Brierley Investments announced they had sold the proposed Auckland site to Greg Olliver's Landco.

The sale of the 110ha Mt Wellington quarry ends one of the most ambitious property developments proposed for Auckland - the creation of a new subdivision, Lake Park, with upmarket houses, offices, shops, a lake and recreational facilities, all straddling the area between St Johns, Remuera, Mt Wellington, Glen Innes and Panmure.

With Auckland growing at about 20,000 people a year, Lake Park seemed to have everything the authorities wanted, providing a much-needed combination of living/working/shopping/playing facilities on one site.

But in fact the authorities rejected the Fletcher-Brierley application last year for a private plan change, leaving the idea in limbo.

This came as a shock to many of those involved, and happened although Karen Bell of council planning was in favour of the proposal for a private plan change to allow Lake Park to be built.

She had signalled the council's intention in April last year to back the plan change.

But by November, the Auckland City Council flatly rejected Lake Park, saying the applicants had not shown the site was suitable for a new town centre, questioning demand for more shops and raising issues about traffic and threats to existing urban centres.

Various meetings between Fletcher staff and the council were held throughout this year, with the council saying at one point that it would propose its own zone change.

But little progress appears to have been made.

Stuart Kendon of Fletcher Property - one of those closest to the proposal - yesterday refused to comment on why the land was sold and why Fletcher Building made the announcement of the sale,not Fletcher Property.

The land will now be sold to Mr Olliver for $38 million towards the end of this year.

He is the developer who has been battling the North Shore City Council and Auckland Regional Council over land earmarked for a regional park at Long Bay.

Mr Olliver's other major development is Catalina Pt, a subdivision on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.

But just what he plans for the Mt Wellington quarry remains a mystery, as his office said he was out New Zealand yesterday and unavailable for comment.

Others close to the deal yesterday said a more intensive and affordable housing development would be more likely to get approval.

Mr Olliver's 198ha of Long Bay land has been in the spotlight, following his advertisement for "25 well-heeled beach bums" to tender for unformed home sites bordering the Long Bay Regional Park.

He said earlier this year that he had placed the ads out of frustration when a year of sale talks stalled with North Shore City and the ARC.

The councils want more land to expand the regional park.